Match Report

Report: MK Dons 3 Tranmere 0

Tranmere failed to make it two wins out of two over the Easter weekend as they went down to a 3-0 defeat at MK Dons.
The home side opened the scoring from the penalty spot early in the first half and after Rovers missed a chance to level from the spot, the Dons added a second before half time. Another penalty midway through the second half sealed the three points for the hosts on a frustrating afternoon for Ronnie Moore's side.
There were two changes to the team that started against Stevenage as Robbie Weir and Zoumana Bakayogo came in for Enoch Showunmi and Andy Robinson.
Ian Goodison was on hand to cut out Daniel Powell's cross on the edge of the six yard box on four minutes and the defender held off Jabo Ibehre four minutes later as he tried to cut into the area down the left wing.
On nine minutes the home side were awarded a penalty when Powell went down under pressure from John Welsh and&amp;nbsp;Bakayogo&amp;nbsp;after the latter&amp;nbsp;had given away possession outside the Tranmere area. Shaun Williams stepped up to take the spot kick and though Owain Fon Williams dived the right way he was unable to prevent the ball from going in off the post and his&amp;nbsp;side from going a goal down.
Ian Goodison had the ball in the MK Dons net from a David Buchanan cross on 16 minutes but his close range effort was ruled out for a foul on goalkeeper David Martin.
Weir won possession on the left side of the MK Dons half on 28 minutes and cut inside before firing over the bar from 30 yards while Ibehre headed wide from a corner at the other end soon after.
Rovers had the chance to level on 33 minutes when Bakayogo's cross field pass found Lucas Akins wide on the right and Weir was fouled as he tried to get on the end of the resulting cross. However, Jake Cassidy's penalty was saved by former Rovers loanee Martin and Goodison put the rebound over the bar.
Ibehre fired high over the bar under pressure from Buchanan after good work from Powell on the left side of the Tranmere area on 41 minutes but a minute later the home side doubled their lead. The ball reached the left side of the Rovers 18 yard box and when it was pulled back by Charlie MacDonald Goodison failed to make a decent contact with his clearance allowing Stephen Gleeson to gain possession and fire into the bottom left corner from 12 yards.
A well timed header from Goodison prevented MacKenzie from getting a free header at the back post from Darren Potter's floated free kick in the second minute of the second half and Akins did well to clear the resulting corner.
Dean Bowditch fired just past the left hand post from 25 yards after Goodison blocked Ibehre's path to goal while Ibehre narrowly failed to make contact with Gleeson's low pass across the penalty area after Taylor gave away possession inside the Tranmere half.
Welsh's low shot deflected just past the right hand post on 61 minutes and from the corner that followed Bakayogo sent an overhead kick a couple of yards wide of the target from substitute Andy Robinson's cross.
Goodison had to clear Ibehre's header from inside the six yard box after Fon Williams had come out of his goal to save only for Buchanan to head clear and a minute later the home side extended their advantage. A foul was given against Buchanan inside the area and Williams sent Fon Williams the wrong way from the penalty spot for his second goal of the afternoon and MK Dons' third.
Fon Williams handled a passback from Goodison on 82 minutes to give MK Dons an indirect free kick from which they couldn't have come closer to scoring a fourth. The ball was smashed into the defending Tranmere players on the goal line with Buchanan hooking clear as the home crowd appealed it had crossed the line.
Dons substitute Nick Chadwick shot straight at Fon Williams as the game went into injury time, the final&amp;nbsp;attempt on goal&amp;nbsp;of the match at either end.
MK Dons: Martin, Lewington, MacKenzie (Flanagan 79), Gleeson, Potter, Bowditch (O'Shea 70), MacDonald, Chicksen, Williams, Powell, Ibehre (Chadwick 81). Unused substitutes: McLoughlin, Smith.
Tranmere: Fon Williams, Holmes, Taylor, Goodison, Buchanan, Weir (Robinson 61), Welsh, Wallace, Bakayogo, Akins, Cassidy (Showunmi 61). Unused substitutes: Coughlin, Labadie, Brunt.&amp;nbsp;
Referee: Simon Hooper
Yellow cards: MacKenzie (33), Holmes (68), Buchanan (73)
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